Lowering LDL Cholesterol

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If you need to lower your LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol) or lower your overall cholesterol, a lot of what you need to do overlaps with what you need to do in managing weight, staying healthy and fit, or managing diabetes. To lower LDL cholesterol, the following four points are the simplest and most important:

1. Eat at least two MORE servings of fruits and/or vegetables per day than you already do now.   (This is good for weight control anyway as I’ve written in http://spirfit.blogspot.com/2010/06/you-will-not-gain-bad-weight-from.html  )  Also, fruits and vegetables have good fiber content and plant stenols which lower your absorption of LDL cholesterol.  Personally, I prefer fruits because they are more convenient and quick to just wash and eat.  In addition, fruits keeps your craving for bad sweets under control in the long term.  However, some people find it convenient to do salad vegetables by just preparing a big tupperware bowl of salad and keeping it in the refrigerator.  That's fine too.  Do whatever it takes for you to increase your intake of fruits and/or vegetables by two more servings per day.  Also, to give you an idea of one serving, a medium size apple is a serving.  A banana is a serving.  The size of a small or medium sized fist is a serving.

2. Eat more fish and take a fish oil pill at the meals you are not having fish.

3. Drink a glass of water (hot or cold) at the beginning of every meal.

4. Exercise one more day per week than you already do right now.

Here are additional important information in keeping your LDL cholesterol low:

• Avoid bakery products like cakes, brownies, cookies, and muffins.  They usually have high saturated fat and sugar content.  [Personally, I eat such products once every four months or less.]

• Keep planning your meals with the same concept as people managing or preventing diabetes.  Info about this can be found at - http://spirfit.blogspot.com/2013/04/diabetes-and-pre-diabetes.html

• Eat more nuts, such as walnuts, peanuts, and almonds.  Snack on them throughout the day.  Mix them into your vegetables and salads.

• On food labels, the following are bad:  saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, and sodium

• Foods with food labels, the following (bad) ingredients should not be more than 5% DV:

                               Saturated Fat

                               Cholesterol

• There should be 0% Trans Fat (as most food companies eliminated trans fats from their ingredients already)

For additional information on LDL cholesterol, visit the following reliable websites:

• Cholesterol numbers to aim for:  LDL, HDL, and total

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cholesterol-levels/CL00001
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/patientinstructions/000386.htm

• Estimating and planning your fat intake -
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/fat-grams/HQ00671

• LDL cholesterol calculator at -
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/ldl-cholesterol/CL00034

• High blood cholesterol information from Medline, or NIH (National Institute of Health)
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000403.htm

• Muscular and aerobic fitness helps protect against effects of LDL cholesterol
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/761039

• What is LDL?

Disclaimer: Talk to your doctor or RD before taking advice from this website or blog.  In using information from this blog, you release the author and owner of this blog and website from any liability.

More health and fitness information and lessons are available at - http://spirfit.org/Academy/#fitness